July 23, 2007

Obese Girls Are More Likely to Avoid Going to College, Study Finds

Many obese girls skip college because of mental and behavior problems associated with their weight, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin has found.

According to a study published in the July issue of the journal Sociology of Education, obese adolescent girls are half as likely to go to college as are non-obese girls, and those who attended a high school where obesity was uncommon were even less likely to enroll.

The study, which tracked 11,000 teenagers, also found that obese teen girls were more likely to consider suicide, have negative self-images, and use alcohol and marijuana than their non-obese peers.

By contrast, the study found little difference between the college-enrollment rates for obese and non-obese boys, leading to the conclusion that body image plays a greater role in girls’ self-concept and education choices.

“Obesity has been identified as a serious public-health issue, but these results indicate the harmful effects extend far beyond physical health,” said Robert Crosnoe, an associate professor of sociology at Austin and author of the study. —Paula Wasley

Comments

1. The loss of women who are intelligent and bright to a college education due to weight issues is a tragic loss for everyone. It is a loss for a woman who is made to feel ashamed due to her body mass, a society that treats this woman as a pariah, and a health care system that does not support proper measures for prevention. We also need to understand that this is an issue that is affecting overweight women but not overweight men. What does this tell you? That women have to persue a different body standard then men. Women should want to be healty, not anorexic, however images of Posh Spice everywhere only increase the self loathing of women who battle weight and make them feel that they can never be accepted into a society, even with graduate degrees and other great contributions other than a flat tummy and abs. What a shame!

   — Allyson Rowen Taylor    Jul 23, 03:22 PM    #

2. Decades ago, research found that obesity among adolescent girls could be associated with parental pressure not to appear “sexy” — in other words, that it could be an effect as well as a cause of self image (and in a sense body image).

   — Mr Punch    Jul 23, 03:24 PM    #

3. I wonder what the college enrollment rates are for small-stature boys vs average and large stature boys. I think it is wrong to assume that body image plays a greater role in girls’ self-concept and education choices. Body image for boys may not be caught up in weight the way it is in girls, but boys do suffer from body image issues – just ask the short skinny 17 year old kid who hasn’t started shaving yet.

   — Lori    Jul 23, 03:40 PM    #

4. It’s important to remember that this study shows correlation, not causation. For all we know (without further research) it could be that obese girls make poor decisions about food (and according to this study drug and alcohol use) and in turn make poor decisions in other areas of life, such as whether or not to attend college. I think it is more likely that teenage girls base a significant amount of the feelings of self-worth on their physical appearance, but it is important to understand all the factors involved before inferring causation.

   — Becca    Jul 23, 03:52 PM    #

5. I have found, similar to Mr Punch (comment #2), that many excessively overweight young women suffered from dysfunctional families, often including abuse, as they grew up. I would be hard pressed to automatically assume that their mental and behavioral problems are a result of their weight. I’m inclined to believe that frequently their weight is related to the abuse and dysfunctionality of the family (or to other problems) rather than the opposite. I suppose “related” is “related,” but the small blurb from the article seems to clearly indicate that the authors believe the weight issue/body image, itself, is influencing the decisions of these young women to opt out of going to college. Perhaps other factors are influencing both the weight and the decision not to pursue college. Just a thought…

   — Linda    Jul 23, 03:53 PM    #

6. i think i’ve got it figured out!

   last week it was an article about the high college graduation rate for gals who played sports in high school.

   they graduate college within six years at a much higher rate than young ladies who didn’t play high school sports.

   now we learn that obese females don’t attend college at nearly the same rate as their skinnier peers.

   what if it’s all because the obese female (who spends too much time eating and too much money on food) can’t find time for high school sports and doesn’t have money left for college.

   — button    Jul 23, 04:00 PM    #

7. In some girls, lack of self esteem, overeating, thoughts of suicide, and substance abuse are results of a trauma such as rape. Obesity itself may not be the cause of the other problems, but just another manifestation of the original trauma. In such cases, it may be that it’s not the obesity that is causing girls to skip college, but the unresolved mental and emotional issues that stem from the trauma.

   — Ann    Jul 23, 04:27 PM    #

8. On the other hand. Being significantly overweight is in fact unhealthy. This is not rocket science and neither is eating a healthy diet. Instead of blaming the culture or the parents or whomever, why not lay a sizable portion (no pun intended) of the blame at the feet of whomever it is (male or female) that is overweight? Would you have this much sympathy for a smoker? Both are self-destructive behaviors that society frowns upon (or should). If you don’t wish to feel like an outcast because you smoke, then quit. If you don’t wish to feel like an outcast because you’re fat, lose the weight through healthy eating and exercise.

   It’s called “taking responsibility for yourself.”

   — Bill    Jul 23, 04:28 PM    #

9. Obesity is higher among lower income and minority groups. Maybe they could not afford a college education.

   — Lee Sataline, M.D.    Jul 23, 04:29 PM    #

10. response to “Bill”:
    a) define healthy eating and exercise. It’s difficult to do if your possibly dysfunctional family or possibly unfunded school system (which cut gym, health, and home ec programs) fails to teach you.
    b) about being responsible for oneself — they are teenagers, and thus have a limited/undeveloped sense of consequences (ask any neurologist or insurance company). How many people are hooked on smoking when they are young and vulnerable?

    — AK    Jul 23, 05:01 PM    #

11. As a slight and more plausible rewrite of Annn (above #7): “In some girls, lack of self esteem, overeating, thoughts of suicide, and substance abuse are results of a trauma such as [abortion]. Obesity itself may not be the cause of the other problems, but just another manifestation of the original trauma. In such cases, it may be that it’s not the obesity that is causing girls to skip college, but the unresolved mental and emotional issues that stem from the trauma.

    — Old Prof    Jul 23, 09:54 PM    #

12. Hey AK. . . Define healthy eating and exercise? Do you not have a dictionary? Can you not read books? Take a walk in your local mall. . . our country is becoming overrun with people who are significantly overwieght. A recent news item predicted that 75% of the population will be overweight by 2015, 41% will be obese. That comes from shoving food down your piehole, not from “possibly” dysfunctional families and “possibly” underfunded school system.

    If teens have an (increasingly) limited/undeveloped sense of consequenses, it can probably be related directly to the public education rather than to underfunding. The idiot boomer generation has done all it can to “give” youngsters self esteem instead of letting them fail, be humiliated and consequently learn about consequenses. And I thought all the hulabaloo about Joe Camel was that the evil tabacco industry was trying to hook the kids? Or do you dispute that? Your attitude is part of the problem. . . Stop trying to come up with excuses for bad behavior. . .

    — Bill    Jul 24, 07:25 AM    #

13. Bill,
    Since your comments are on the Chronicle of Higher Education web site, I would have to assume that you work in higher education, correct? I am deeply disturbed by your opinions of human beings and the written temper tantrum in response to challenging your ideas. I feel sorry for your students if this is how you react to their problems.

    — Shannon    Jul 24, 09:41 AM    #

14. Re: Becca

    I believe yours is one of the best statements in response to this article. People are quick to assign a cause that will generate the most ‘hulabaloo’ (thanks Bill). Otherwise, the article would just say “Obese females are less likely to attend college. We have no idea why, we didn’t bother to ask.” That just wouldn’t have the same effect. Also, one should wonder whether the obesity causes the subtance abuse and suicidal thoughts, or the thoughts and abuse cause the obesity. Which came first?

    — Gabrielle    Jul 24, 09:49 AM    #

15. Just reading these e-mails proves the point that overweight woman are treated like pariahs. I myself work out daily and eat a healthy diet yet have struggled with my weight my entire life, but many in society (and definitely on this page) assume that I sit on the sofa each day stuffing down snickers bars, when in truth I never touch such food. I came from a lower income but good family, completed college and some grad work and have a good, high paying career, so cannot speak to whether there is truth to the claims of this study, but for girls who may be more succeptable to the snears and hatred of society, I say that the responses to this article may prove society’s distain for anything but the perfect body image quite well.

    — chubby chick    Jul 24, 10:59 AM    #

16. I seem to remember the skinny girls, popular types as the ones with substance abuse problems from my high school and college years (I suppose regular vomiting as a result of drunkenness helped keep their weight down). They also teneded to be far more promiscuous. Overweight girls didn’t care about body image and were the intellectual ones.

    I agree that we can note a correlation, but being fat isn’t necessarily a cause for not going to college. They are often discouraged from doing other things “until they fix their weight problem.” If society sees you first as overweight, then your natural tendency is to withdraw from that society.

    — Anon    Jul 24, 11:17 AM    #

17. “A recent news item predicted that 75% of the population will be overweight by 2015, 41% will be obese. That comes from shoving food down your piehole”

    Bill, if you do work in education or higher education, I think your bigoted attitude about weight and the attitudes of others in academic positions might be part of the reason why obese girls do not go on to college as much as their thin counterparts.

    I question the meaning of the statistics you post here; this is a society that finds people like Kate Winslet and Jordin Sparks (from American Idol) overweight or “plus sized.”

    I just finished my daily 40 minutes of exercise for today, and have planned a day of roast turkey breast for lunch and baked fish for dinner. I wouldn’t say I spend a lot of my time “shoving food down my piehole”—I spend it working and up until this May, finishing my second graduate degree—yet by government standards I am overweight. Don’t worry though—I’m not costing you “tax dollars.” Since I’m perfectly healthy by all medical standards.

    My eating habits and health status aren’t any of your business, but I think it’s important to remind people like you, Bill, that it’s not OK to make universal judgments based on your incorrect perceptions. Doing that is called prejudice or discrimination, and I’d like to think that’s frowned upon, at least and especially in a supposedly enlightened setting (like a university).

    And unless you’re the one in a million expert who has discovered the “secret” to making the whole world thin (and according to you that would be, I imagine, for the non-thin people to refrain from “shoving food down their pieholes” at all), maybe you might benefit from taking a look at the science behind eating/weight. Eating right and exercising can help make people healthy, but it does not always make people skinny. And being not skinny does not make people unworthy.

    Check out books like “Rethinking Thin” by Gina Kolata. You might learn something.

    — J    Jul 24, 02:51 PM    #

18. Re: button (comment #6), who said that overweight girls don’t do as well in school “because the obese female (who spends too much time eating and too much money on food) can’t find time for high school sports and doesn’t have money left for college.”

    Um… WTF??? At least in America, food is relatively cheap, and I can’t remember the last time when munching on snacks caused a time-crunch for anyone.

    I haven’t read the study you refer to, but I would assume the higher tendency of female athletes to graduate HS (and presumably go on to college) might stem from factors that you didn’t list. First off, colleges tend to find athletes more attractive and offer them more scholarships than other students. (at least, that’s how most HS Seniors perceive it) College is expensive. Money makes a difference.

    Also, is it possible that colleges discriminate against obese female applicants? They’ve certainly been discrimated against after getting in, anyway. (see this story about Delta Zeta Sorority — link text ) While I’m fortunate that an eating disorder took off most of my baby fat during Freshman year, I can still imagine what it would be like to be a chubby high school student and hear a story like this. My reaction might be, “Wow, the crap that I’ve taken for being fat in high school will be nothing compared to college! Screw that, I’ll just get a real job.”

    Maybe obese women don’t succeed like their thinner counterparts because prejudiced people like you don’t want them to?

    — Caroline    Jul 25, 04:03 PM    #

19. I agree that our education system is partly to blame. Physical education in this country has become so bad that many people—from skinny to obese—fail to realize that their workout routines are ineffective. Many people happen to get results despite what they are doing not because of what they are doing.

    — Jonathan    Jul 25, 08:29 PM    #

20. Bill is in academia and believes in the stereotype of fat people??? What subject does he teach? What ever happened to critical thinking?

    There are many, many reasons for being fat. Some are, as Bill so proudly vented, at the feet of those who are fat. Yes, dear Bill, there are fat people out there who do nothing but eat junk and sit in front of a video game all day. And there are those that have yo-yo dieted themselves up to a weight that is two or three times what they started as. There are those that have medical conditions that cause them to gain weight. And then there are those that are just genetically disposed to be heavier and no matter how much they exercise and eat moderately, will never be what society deems acceptable.

    Oh, and guess what, darling Bill? Lots of thin people ALSO do nothing but eat junk and sit in front of a video game all day. They just happen to have metabolisms that don’t let them gain weight. But we won’t hear you cry foul at their unhealthy lifestyles and gluttonous behavior. Why? Because they’re thin.

    Now…back to the main reason for this blog…

    Lots of people have made great points. Many fat individuals live under the poverty line and can only afford food that isn’t as nutritious and needed for their health. And if they’re working all day and trying to support their families, they aren’t focused on having fabulous abs. And yes, there are a lot of fat women out there that, because they’ve been treated so badly for being fat to begin with, lack the self-esteem to choose college.

    Of course, the other issue here is that we don’t know all of the factors of the study nor who funded it. It could all be a bunch of horse-patootey.

    — Amy    Jul 26, 02:07 AM    #

21. I’m 28 years old, working on my master’s degree, have a college degree from an Ivy League School and I am a size 22.

    I hope fat people continue to go to college because it’s not as hard as the insecure, neurotic people who wrote this “study” paid for by the diet industry and the fascist American media pretend it is.

    Educate yourselves people!

    — Mari    Jul 26, 04:19 PM    #

22. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUTJQIBI1oA

    Becca, I am in my late 20’s, graduated from the University of Michigan, am a minority and was active in high school. If fat people weren’t discriminated against,
    they probably would go to college more. I know I almost
    dropped out of school due to all of the racism I experienced!

    Fyi: I’m a size 24, eat fruits and vegetables every day, and drink water. Sounds like the people who did the study and the people on this message board don’t know enough fat people to know
    what we’re really like!

    ALSO, WHAT ABOUT CAMRYN MANHEIM? SHE HAS A MASTER’S DEGREE FROM NYU?

    — Piper    Jul 26, 04:26 PM    #

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